Wednesday, 9 April 2014

I was honoured with the chance to pattern test the new Sew Over It pattern, the Betty dress!

The pattern was inspired by the TV show Mad Men. I’ve never seen the show, and for some reason I’m not interested. I do love seeing stills of the shows to look at the pictures and I love seeing everyone’s outfits inspired by the show, but other than that I’m not interested.

The pattern itself was gorgeous! I made my dress out of a cotton that I bought from fabric.com a while ago (still for sale here). I only bought 3yards but the pattern asked for 3.5m. Because I normally buy fabric here in Australia which is sold in metres and sew patterns that have their yardage in yards I thought I could get away with it…

Turns out no, I ran out of fabric with the skirt pieces, but I cut them first so it was ok. I have heaps of white broadcloth from spotlight lying around at home so my fiancé James suggest I use that instead of a trip to the fabric store. I don’t know if anyone else from Australia has noticed, but the white broadcloth from spotlight is gorgeously soft (for spotlight) but the coloured versions are stiff and don’t soften up in the washing.

I sewed a size 20, which fits well, but looking at the pictures it looks like I should have done a full bust adjustment which I’ve always thought I should need, but never seem to.

I found the instructions to be well written and the little illustrations adorable :-)

I love the way that it finishes the shoulders, which is different to what I’ve tried before. When I need to finish sleeves like these I normally find my Rooibos pattern (by Colette Patterns) and use their method, but the Betty Dress method seems easier to remember in the long run.

I’d love to go to England and spend a day or two at a course with all the guys at Sew Over It, but saving the cost of the flights, accommodation etc by buying the pattern seems like a great idea to buy more fabric!

Sunday, 15 December 2013

When Mari contacted me and asked whether I wanted to test a
new pattern for her I was intrigued- as down here in Australia we don’t really
need mittens, well not here in Adelaide, Tasmania probably does. But I personally do get pretty cold and when
I mentioned to my boyfriend, James, the idea of conductive mittens, we were
sold!

I quickly went to my local Spotlight and tried to find the
warmest, softest, cheapest knit fabric they had in their summer sale! Yeah,
it’s summer here.

I found the minky fleece and decided on bringing home the
geometric navy blue, though thinking back I should have gotten the red to
support our local soccer team, Adelaide United.

The fabric I used was a very soft minky fleece with ~50%
stretch. One of the things I hadn’t contemplated was the fact that I’m not too
good with knit fabrics, but I was going to try my hardest and I’m pretty happy
with how they turned out :-)

I printed the pattern out on A4 paper, which fit much better
with the new layout. I decided to do the forearm length mittens as I really
liked the V section of the cuff on the palm side, and I didn’t think the
longest length would be very practical for me.

It’s hard to see the V because of the pattern of the fabric,
but I know it’s there.

The construction went really well for me, even with the knit
fabric, and Mari’s instructions were perfect. I didn’t use the elastic to hold
the mittens up as mine seemed fine with the stretch they already had, but they
might become droopy as time goes by and if so, I can just quickly whip up a new
pair :-)

I think Mari should be super proud of how this pattern came
out and everyone, especially people in colder climates, should make themselves
a pair – if I did come from somewhere cold I’d totally make these as presents.